Peter asks: Is this useful for students -- or just for teachers?


"a research paper is your own thoughts based on your thorough analysis of what you
previously knew and what you managed to research about your topic."

There are 7 major types of research


1) Argumentative papers
2) Analytical papers
3) Definition papers
4) Compare and Contrast papers
5) Cause and Effect papers
6) Reports
7) Interpretative papers


Argumentative Papers


Argumentative papers present 2 sides of a controversial issue in the one paper. A good argumentative paper will include: in-text citations from researchers that present facts from [at least?] both sides of an issue, and will conclude with the author analyzing the pros and cons of each argument. The most difficult issue when writing an argumentative paper is that the author is expected to be subjective (acknowledge in your paper that you have a bias or an opinion) and yet your research and analysis MUST be objective (unbiased, un-emotive) when presenting both sides of the argument. A good author would always include information from researchers on both sides of the problem (especially researchers that actually believe in their side of the argument).

Analytical Papers


PeterA asks: How is this type different than the one above?
Analytical papers include information from a range of sources but the focus of research paper is in analyzing the different viewpoints from a factual rather than an opinionated standpoint.
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